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September 25, 2008
Doing what is easy, not what is necessary
Following on from all those other minor constitutional tweaks and deeply uncontroversial (amongst the public) and mainly symbolic measures on flagstaffs, attorney general, lifting the parliament protest zone and such like; we have the Government's new big idea for its 4th term: ending the bar on Catholics becoming monarch and the right of primogeniture.
Worthwhile, yes. Necessary, probably. Sending good signals about moving this country's constitution into the 20th century (yes I do mean 20th rather than 21st), absolutely. Going to empower citizens (umm I mean subjects!) or rebuild trust and interest in electoral/party politics, no. Not at all.
My own take is that the Government is doing this because it is an easy to understand reform; is potentially easy to achieve; gets good newspaper headlines; and avoids having to tackle any of the more controversial or difficult constitutional issues that would take up political and legislative time and will.
When I heard him in the hall in Manchester little more than 24 hours ago, I had hoped Brown's "new settlement for new times" included bringing our democracy into the 21st century.
Or maybe I am being too negative. Maybe actually this is only the start of a deeper reforming agenda. Maybe. Just maybe. One man who may hold the key to that is Wilf Stevenson, the prime minister's new adviser on the constitution. Mr Stevenson is a former director of the British Film Institute, and a long-time friend of Gordon Brown - since university days in fact. Until recently he was the director of think tank, the Smith Institute. I have no ideas about his views on electoral reform, but I'm sure someone will fill me in shortly on that.
Posted by malcolmclark on September 25, 2008
